International

Swiss bank search yielded $10 million for Holocaust heirs

Associated Press

GENEVA - Heirs of Holocaust victims have received $10 million from a massive search of Swiss bank accounts dormant since World War II, an international tribunal said yesterday.

settlement ended a four-year effort to satisfy claims by relatives of people who had deposited money in Swiss banks and later were killed by the Nazis.

There were successful claims for 207 accounts believed owned by people who became victims of the Holocaust, said the Claims Resolution Tribunal.

Claimants received a total of $10 million - the amount in the accounts plus interest and a refund of bank fees.

The hunt also yielded accounts that had no connection with Holocaust victims. The tribunal said it awarded $40.6 million to claimants of those accounts.

''During its four years of existence the members of the tribunal struggled for truth and fairness in many difficult and sometimes tragic cases,'' said the Claims Resolution Tribunal.

The effort, which was based on a U.S.-led search for Holocaust assets, is only part of sweeping attempts to compensate Nazi victims and their heirs.

The tribunal of 17 arbitrators based in Zurich said it now is ready to turn its attention to helping a U.S. court distribute funds from a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and Holocaust victims.

''The claims resolution process proved more complex than expected,'' it said. Claimants came from more than 70 countries and communicated with the tribunal in 15 languages.

States

Missing N.Y. hiker found alive

CRAWFORD NOTCH, N.H. - A hiker who set off into the snowy White Mountains wearing shorts was found alive and apparently in good shape before dawn yesterday. Now he might be billed for his rescue.

Mark Friedman, 46, of Mount Kisco, N.Y., had not been heard from since he hiked out Tuesday, officials said. Overnight temperatures dropped below freezing.

He was found just after 4 a.m. yesterday by searchers who walked for hours through mountain snowdrifts and a tangled web of brush and fallen trees, Fish and Game Col. Ron Alie said.

"We have no apparent medical problems whatsoever,'' he said. He had no details on how Friedman survived.

The plan was to walk Friedman to a shelter, then try to have an Army National Guard helicopter take him off the mountain.

Alie said officials will review whether to bill Friedman under the state's reckless hiker law, which was passed last year.

The first major snowstorm of the season had blown through the area over the weekend. On the White Mountains' tallest peak, Mount Washington, it typically snows every month of the year.

Local

Tucson police to continue using beanbag rounds

Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. - The city's police department will continue to use "beanbag" rounds despite a study that says serious injury or death can result when officers fire them.

On April 2, a lead-filled beanbag fired by Tucson police during a riot cost a 19-year-old University of Arizona freshman his left eye. He has since filed a $3 million claim against the city.

The beanbag is part of an arsenal of less-than-lethal weapons that Tucson police use for general crowd control and to subdue suspects.

A study in this month's Annals of Emergency Medicine concludes that serious injury or death can result when police use beanbag rounds.

Tucson Police Chief Richard Miranda declined to comment on the study because he had not read it.

In July, Miranda said police would use less-lethal munitions again for crowd control, adding that beanbags and rubber bullets are necessary.